Christmas Fun Facts - Interesting Facts

Here you can find some Christmas Fun Facts. The first
Christians never celebrated the Nativity of Christ and celebrated only Easter.
Then the Christian communities began to celebrate Christmas together with the
Epiphany - January 6. This tradition is still followed by the Armenian Church.
Only in 354 the Christian church officially established the celebration of the
Nativity of Christ on December 25 (January 7 in the Julian style).

You can share your own interesting facts!

christmas fun facts

The date of
Christ's birth is not mentioned in the Gospel texts. December 25 as Christmas
Day for the first time appears in the annals of the Greek Christian writer
Sextus Julia Afrikan in 221. This date coincided with the pagan celebrations of
the winter solstice.

25th
December was not chosen by chance. It was on this day that the peoples of
Europe, who did not yet know Christianity, celebrated the Day of the Sun. The wise
church decided not to violate the old traditions, but to make sure that the
holiday propagated by her "accidentally" coincided with the already
known. Several centuries later, few people remembered about the Day of the Sun,
but Christmas celebrated everything.

Orthodox
Christians and Catholics Christmas is considered in the hierarchy the second
great holiday after the Resurrection of the Lord.

The holiday of
Christmas has five days of pre-holiday (from December 20 to December 24) and
six days of post-holiday and ends with the feast of the Circumcision of the
Lord. This day coincides with the Orthodox for the New Year on the Julian
calendar.

The Magi from the
East presented the God-grantor with three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Gold indicated that Jesus was destined to become King. The incense symbolized
the gift of the Great Bishop), and myrrh spoke of the imminent death on the
cross. This is the evangelical story of the gifts of the Magi in our time, the
tradition of giving Christmas gifts.

The very first
Christmas gifts were made to each other by the ancient Romans. At the dawn of
early Christianity, those who professed the new faith exchanged boxes with
small but pleasant trifles inside. And believers told good friends to their
friends and relatives who were much appreciated more than a material gift. As,
however, and now.

Christmas
candles are also directly related to pagan beliefs, because with the help of
fire our ancestors drove away the evil spirits of winter. In the Christian era,
the candle acquired a special significance: they symbolized the path that each
of us chooses in life itself, as well as the victory of light forces over the
dark.

christmas fun facts

The
child of Jesus is usually portrayed according to well-established canons: in
the manger, next to the growing trees and peacefully walking lambs nearby. But
in the Bible such exact images are not given. In fact, they were
"invented" by one of the zealous propagandists of Christianity - St.
Francis. It was he who advised us to portray the newborn Savior in this way.

In the history of
some countries there were periods when it was strictly forbidden to celebrate
Christmas. For example, in 1644 in England, this holiday was suddenly declared
pagan and wicked. And at the state level: the law on the ban on Christmas even
adopted a local parliament. This was done under the pressure of the Puritans,
who demanded the simplification of some and complete destruction of other
church rites. A similar thought occurred
to the municipal men of Boston: in this American city the veto for the holiday
was imposed for more than 20 years. Christmas was restored in rights
only with the beginning of the Restoration, during the reign of Charles II
(1660 - 1685).

The first
Christmas (New Year) cracker exploided back in 1847. And invented this noisy
and cheerful attribute of someone Tom Smith, who sold sweets. And as a filling,
a surprise, along with finely chopped confetti, put small candies in each tube.
The Christmas cracker-record holder reached a length of 36.65 m. And it was
made in London by Christmas 1989.

The largest
Christmas pudding (weighing 1390 kg) was cooked in Kensington (Victoria,
Australia) in 1987.

christmas fun facts

In world history,
an episode is known when a real miracle happened on the holiday: for a short
time, Christmas managed to stop the war. During World War I, the soldiers of
the German and British armies lay down their arms for a while, left the
trenches without fear of someone's villainous bullet, embraced, praised Christ
and gave each other gifts.

Known today for
every American child, Rudolph the deer has never been a faithful assistant to
Santa. This image was created by advertisers in the 30s of the 20th century,
and he liked it so much that it became traditional.

It is believed
that Martin Luther was the first advised to make a Christmas tree is the
spruce. But today this fact is more taken on faith, since it is not documented
anywhere. But some historians agree that the first Christmas trees were still
in the homes of ancient Romans, until then and did not know about Christianity.
Anyway, by the 15th century of our era green beauties were already in every
house - both the poor and the rich.

Decorating Christmas
tree was really popular German tradition in the XVI century. Over time, this
custom migrated to other countries. It is no accident that Charles Dickens
somehow called it "German fun".

The Christmas
tree in one of the parks of a small American town of St. Claus (Indiana) is
decorated with Christmas tree decorations all year round. Local residents are
convinced that it is their town - the birthplace of the legendary Santa Claus.
Everyone who hanging their decorations on the tree, it promises happiness - at
least until the next Christmas and New Year holidays.

christmas fun facts

The most massive
Christmas festival was organized in December 1979 by Boeing. Then on two
performances in the hall "Kingdom" (Seattle, Washington) 103,103
people visited.

The song
"White Christmas" by Irving Berlin (incidentally, a native of the
city of Tyumen), recorded by Bing Crosby on May 29, 1942, and to this day
remains the No. 1 best-seller among the forty-plate records. By Christmas 1987,
in North America alone, more than 170 million copies had been sold. The song
serves as a kind of anthem for the main holiday of winter, as George Gershwin's
Summertime is one of the main songs of summer and summer vacations.

Another
interesting fact about Christmas: in 1843, Sir Henry Cole sent the first ever
Christmas card. Sketch for her painted a friend of Cole artist John Gersley. A
total of one thousand copies were printed. But since there were no thousands of
recipients from Cole and Gersley, the surplus was sold. Initially, the novelty
was met very coolly. A real boom for such postcards began only twenty years
later.

According to folk
signs, deep snow on Christmas - to a plentiful harvest of bread. If on this day
it's warm, wait for the cold spring.

In 1955, a store
from the American city of Colorado Springs placed an ad before Christmas,
inviting children to call Santa Claus. However, the phone number was indicated
with an error, and the calls began to arrive at the air defense command center,
whose specialists did not hang up, but began to tell the children the
coordinates of the place where Santa is flying at the moment. Since then, the
military has made the reception of calls from children an annual tradition
called "NORAD Tracks Santa", which helps to support many volunteers.
Nowadays, from December 1 of each year you can receive the Santa Claus
coordinates in real time on the official website of the program.

Shocking Christmas Fun Facts

Among the
inhabitants of some Peruvian cities and villages of Indian origin, a tradition
called "takanakuy" is popular. On Christmas Day, December 25, the
celebrants wear solemn outfits and gather in large groups for fisticuffs. With
their help, it is supposed to solve all the conflicts that have accumulated
during the year, and the participants, both men and women, can call on the
battle and their relatives and neighbors. The rules prescribe only to wrap the
hands with cloth, do not bite, do not snatch the opponent by the hair and do
not beat the recumbent. After that, all participants usually get drunk to
muffle the pain and complete the celebration.

One of the
Christmas traditions of the Catalans is the production of so-called kaganers -
painted figures of little men who are in great need. One
kaganer is necessarily added to the composition of the Christmas nativity
scene, the scene of the birth of Christ, and the Catholic Church does not
object to this. Figures
can represent not only ordinary people, but also celebrities, including
presidents and the Pope. It
is believed that the people's satire embodies in kaganera the concept of
equality of all people regardless of their social status.

In the Swedish
city of Gevle, a huge straw goat is installed every year, an invariable
attribute of Christmas in the Scandinavian countries. And almost every year
hooligans try to burn or otherwise destroy the figure. Some vandals who have
been caught, fined or even subjected to a small arrest, but in most cases
attempts by city authorities to resist hooliganism, including hiring security
guards and installing web cameras, are useless. Since 1966, only 45% of goats
have survived.

One of the most
odious dictators of Africa was Francisco Macias Nguema, who ruled from 1968 to
1979 in Equatorial Guinea. As a result of the terror that was unleashed by him,
about a quarter of the country's population was killed. The executions were not
always trivial - for example, at Christmas 1975, 150 opponents of Nguema were
shot by soldiers dressed in Santa Claus costumes. The background was Mary
Hopkin's song "Those Were the Days" for the melody of the Russian
romance "Dear Long".

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